Bacon Cheddar Tuna Melts

Ok, so hubs was asked to buy bean sprouts (to add crunch factor to girlie’s wraps tomorrow) and came home with alfalfa sprouts the other day instead so I put them in here upon the recommendation of someone at the What’s Cooking message board… SO, it didn’t go over too well with 2 out of 3 littles in this house… but my reservations about adding them to a warm sandwich were relieved. And well, I love a grand variety of tuna melts for their simplicity and effortlessness… and I took another shortcut this time using bottled dressing instead of making one.

Bacon Cheddar Tuna Melts
2 cans of tuna, drained
Kraft Caesar Vinaigrette with Parm dressing/marinade
8 slices bread
4-8 slices slices cheddar cheese (depending on whether you like cheese on both sides or not)
8 slices of bacon (you could use less I reckon, I could have stretched 6 slices to work for us)
1/2 container of alfalfa sprouts

I cut the bacon strips in half before cooking to make them more compact within the sandwich. Cook the bacon to crisp, then drain of the grease and either reuse some of it or add back you desired fat to toast the sandwiches with… I put cheese on each slice of bread, layer tuna (mixed with as much of the dressing as is needed to reach you desired state of wetness) on one slice of cheese and bacon on the other, then toast both bread sides together or separately (depending on the number you are making at once and/or rush you are in) in the pan as one would a grilled cheese… open the sandwiches (if necessary) and add the spouts between the fish and bacon, reassemble…

PS. This would probably have been good with sliced tomatoes, if you go for things like that… For example, I would have done some for hubs had they been in the fridge… just popping them on while adding the sprouts.

Cheesy Potato Broccoli Soup

Pretty straightforward, run-of-the-mill soup made to suit the 4yo’s craving… Simple basic scout night eating… served with grilled cheese and raw carrots, special requests really don’t get much easier than this…

Cheesy Potato Broccoli Soup
4 oz cheese, sliced/chunked or cubed
1/2 lb broc
1 lb potatoes
1/4 onion, halved
1.5 milk
3 c cold water (you could I suppose use broth here)
2 tsp: s/p, dry mustard
1 tsp: garlic/onion
2T: butter, flour

Cover segmented broccoli with 1.5c water, and microwave 3 min on HIGH. Put in the blender and puree… Melt flour and butter and seasonings together until well incorporated and pour in broccoli puree slowly while whisking out the flour lumps… Let that come up to boil while you add milk, cheese, onion to blended and blitz until relatively smooth… Pour cheese mixture into pot whisking into broccoli mixture… Add the remaining half of the water to the blender and blend to rinse/collect any remaining yummy bits and add to the pot as well. Promptly add the diced potatoes now as this is a good time since it is no longer hot… bring back to a boil and simmer about 20 or until potatoes are done.

Catfish Po’ Boys

So Dinner Divas had this as a recipe idea… and well there are no rules, right? so I just made my own catfish po boy without relying on this recipe… which I guess still counts as it is the same idea…

I mean I had a recipe in the Moosewood (Simple Suppers I think) that I’d wanted to try so I figured I’d make that, but then I couldn’t find the cookbook so I’m making something up (if I get stuck I’ll just channel dead relatives, I can’t tell you how much fried catfish goes on in my family surely I’ve learned a thing or two from osmosis)… “Fish, fried fish at that, on a weeknight?” some of you might be wondering what made me so brave all of a sudden… but I’ll confess, the truth is we have a meeting at the bluejay’s school this afternoon so hubby planned to just take off and so he could be on hand for backup/rescue…

taken after frying... I should have taken another in sandwich form but I didnt...

Catfish Po’ Boys
4 7-oz catfish fillets
1 c flour
buttermilk
1 T ea: garlic pwd, onion pwd
2 tsp ea: salt and blk pepper
1 tsp hot pepper sauce (typical red one)
cornmeal

Season the fish, dip in batter and dredge in cornmeal… Drop fish into deep oil at 375, fry until golden and floating…

Served on 4 Hoagie Rolls with cole slaw (1/2 a head worth, plus grated carrots dressed w/o the dreaded mayo) and Rémoulade for me and the Hubs… pretty good stuff. But I couldn’t fry the fish, and only one turned out nice (seen to the right)… the process was minorly exasperating so I forgot to take more pictures… [JP: Yes, I used the cole slaw and on the rémoulade on the sandwich not the side… I’d wanted to use cheese too but was too exhausted to slice some, and just wanted to eat…]

Squash Hushpuppies

This is a huge favorite here… and was even a hit with the not-so veggie interested in-laws one Thanksgiving. Family, guests, the kidlets everyone who’s eaten them seems to like them… of course maybe it’s just shock that there’s squash in there, I dunno.

Silence those puppies...with squash! LOL

At any rate, I love them and figured as long as we are frying and he’s home I’d get the Hubs the help me make these. I premixed them and let him have at it after the meeting, while I sat with the homework king… This is the orginal recipe, as again it’d be hard to get your hands on… I tend to add salt and onion/garlic powder, and pre-cook the diced onions–but mainly do it pretty close to as is, so there’s no need for both versions… (oh and the italics are mine to make sure you don’t overlook this as it is commonly overlooked, and it does matter so add leavening if yours is plain)

Squash Hushpuppies (by D. Holmes, from the Tylertown Cooking with Friends cookbook, p 93)
2 c cooked squash, drained and mashed
3/4 c self-rising cornmeal
1 egg
1 med onion, finely chopped
1/2 c buttermilk

Mix well an drop in hot oil. Keeps well. May be frozen and reheated in the microwave.

My Creole Rémoulade

So if you know about rémoulade, you’d probably think first of a mayo based sauce probably with some diced pickle… well if you know me, then you know I eat neither. But what you may not realize is that not all creole rémoulades are even mayo based in the first place so I’m not even being that quirky by dropping it and second of all if you like my food then shut your mouth about my weirdness, whether merely percieved or genuinely validated…

may not look like much.... but try it, you will like it... (besides, you know mayo is useless... try something with flavor!)

My Creole Rémoulade
1/4 c olive oil (I used chili olive oil because I had it leftover from not making the rest of the bananas)
1 T ea: creole mustard, tarragon vinegar (or 1 T white vinegar and 1/2 tsp dried tarragon warmed together), ketchup
1/2 T ea: horseradish, worchestershire
1/2-3/4 tsp ea: smoked paprika, hot pepper sauce (I used Seasons in the Sun yellow sauce… firgured it’d go well with the mustard and it’s a little milder to balance back the chili oil)
1/4 tsp ea: salt, pepper, minced fresh garlic
2 T ea: chives (about the green tops of one chive), celery, bell pepper
s/p to taste, adj if needed

Mix everything together and chill for 4+ hrs, then taste for any s/p adjustments before using.

[And you can of course make a bigger batch if you do desire…]

“Potato Cookies” (aka. PW’s Crash Potatoes)

maybe not so cute, but a HUGE hit with the kids...

So the the oldest saw these and about exploded with enthusiasm… He was dying to try these “potato cookies” as he renamed them… Mine aren’t as cute as hers (why I can’t make cute food is beyond me) but they were tasty and if I can master the smashing of them they might make some frequent appearances…

Potato Cookies (pretty much exactly PW’s Crash Hot Potatoes, just a smaller batch)
8 red skin potatoes
olive oil
salt, pepper, oregano

scrub your potatoes and put them in a pot… cover with cold water, and boil until fork tender… preheat oven to 450, and drizzle oil all over cookie sheet… remove potatoes with a slotted spoon and place on oiled sheet… smash and drizzle tops with oil, sprinkling with the seasonings and bake until golden, about 23 min…

Meatball Sandwiches

Ok so I really didn’t want to make meatballs as getting the oldest to finish homework was draining so I skimped, you might as well bother making a regular meatball… but if you share my exhaustion these worked alright…

I served 4 meatballs per hoagie roll and topped with parm...

Meatball Sandwiches
1 lb ground beef (happened to be aged angus, probably how I got away with cutting corners as it started with good flavor)
1 T mrs dash tomato basil
1/2 T ea: s/p, garlic pwd, onion pwd
1/4 onion diced and sauteed with 2 cloves garlic
11 oz tomato puree (leftover from making tomato pie)
1 T: oregano
1/2 T: garlic pwd and onion pwd

mix first four, shape (I made 16, to use on 4 hoagie rolls) and brown on all sides… mix last three with 1/4 c water and pour over meatballs and allow to simmer until meatballs are cooked and sauce rethickened…

[PS. that’s these potatoes in the pic with it…]

Hoagie Rolls (from bought dough)

So, I’m not really a baker… I cheat on all my bread (and particularly favor biscuits and quick breads) but today I decided to make the bread from bought yeast dough rather than just a pop can… so this is a step up for me. Lots of shaping involved though, so I did a bunch of pics. Sorry if this is slow to load… I promise not to do it often, I just thought it’d be less confusing than trying to describe the shaping…

Hoagie Rolls
2 1-lb frozen logs of yeast bread dough
some butter or oil from greasing/handling

grease pan and dough and let thaw and rise, simultaneously, until fills a loaf pan (about 2 hrs)… split each loaf in half lengthwise and shape, then let rise 1 hr… punch down and split in half again and let rise another hr… preheat oven to 350… then (w/o punching) tighten up surface of dough by pinching and tucking under the bottom until it looks taut on top and sort of oval shaped… (I then spread out on two trays for more baking space betwixt and between) brush tops of the dough with melted butter (or oil) and bake for around 15-20 mins or until golden brown and done… [NB: during all the risings I covered the dough with a warm damp towel]

the visuals for the first few steps...

the visuals for the wrapping up...

Meals/Week in Review: 8/18-24

* Pasta w/Bacon, Butternut Squash, chicken and parm… (I promise I will not be lured again by the appearance of winter squash in the grocery before season and will wait patiently for a more appropriate harvesting as this had a strange young, almost grassy flavor that completely took the wind from my sails) and buttered snow peas

* The belated and modified caribbean meal: caribbean pork roast and rice, sweet potatoes with pineapple, chili fried bananas….

* the no cook, out too late at home depot on scout day fast food run: burger king take home (see I told you I don’t make everything from scratch, everyone has those ‘gotta eat’ moments)

* Leftover Warhol Lentil Soup (which I billed as chicken and bean stew with the kids and it passed with flying colors), and French Tomato Pie

* A neighborly day for a neighbor: breaded chicken, cut into nuggets for the littles; blender puffy mac and cheese ; leftover french tomato pie; french bread; lemon cake and cherry ‘bread’ pudding and vanilla ice cream

* French meal w/GTG’s dessert: French onion soup; steak au poivre w/sauce; roasted parsnips, mushrooms, and green beans; and triple chocolate mousse

* Pork and Veggie Stew made from the caribbean meal leftovers…

Bonus:
Joelen’s White Wine Picnic Challenge, Saturday’s dessert: Sparkling peach melba-ish gelatin

Not Quites:
* Apple Wine Glazed Apple Cupcakes – was going to make this for the scout bake sale at the church but get this, couldn’t find anyone selling boone’s farm, LOL  soooo, helf a dozen stores and a couple of phone calls later we gave up for now, but I will totally be making this as soon as we locate some BF apple wine…
* Road friendly fare for the drive to Chicago, hybrid combo with the 2 yo’s pick: Mandarin Chicken Salad Wraps and sweet potato fries — I’ll make this in the coming week…

Peach Melba-ish Gelatin (alcoholic)

Yes, if you noticed it looks sort of lumpy it is... I forgot about it and let it set up too much before adding the fruit.

see, it is set and will slice up... it just looks sad because it overset, before I proceeded... so pay attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this was for Joelen’s White Wine Picnic Challenge, except I really slacked off getting things posted so this is sort of an unoffical entry but I sent it to her for inclusion in the wrap up. And I did for the record make it before the deadline (on Sat though), I just am slow wrapping the end of last week’s recipes. I took a lot of pictures and had a lot of recipes to type up so I probably would have fallen a bit behind even if the 2 yo hadn’t gotten sick… but I’m now on top of it and here’s the belated beauty.

So I’m a dessert person and jello seemed something that would travel easy (see I’m not a picnic-er so I didn’t really know what’d be good on a picnic–thus I was at a bit of a loss this go around) so I deemed this picnic worthy… You might not, or you might want to make it more like cubes/jigglers by doubling the gelatin–which could only serve to make it more picnic friendly, right? (not to mention it’d up the protein, and a higher protein dessert must be a healthier one, no?!?) Now granted this will not taste exactly lke Peach Melba, but if you are fond of PM you will absolutely taste the nod and if you fear you or your spouse may need a little hair of the dog to repair the previous night’s damage (drink water people)…then all the better. So go get to making it!

Soaking the berries (before obsessiveness took over)...

Peach Melba-ish Gelatin
1 bottle sparkling peach wine, seperated
2 pouches unflavored gelatine (4 if you want little finger cubes)
1/2 c sugar (flexible, you might use less to taste based on your wine)
1 pkg raspberries
1/4 c creme de cassis

Chill half the wine and use to blossom the gelatin. Heat the other half to boiling (I did in microwave because I’m impatient, took about 2.5 min on HIGH) with 1/2 c sugar. Mix the two together and chill to partially set (I seperated into two smaller batches so it’d cool faster, ). Meanwhile, soak the raspberries in the liqueur–I tilted this regularly this way and that trying to make sure they looked like they were all getting attention without roughing up the berries (and finally in a moment of complete and utter obsessiveness, stood the berries up and poured the liqueur into each of their little hollows)… Stir the drained berries (reserve the cassis for drinks or other later use in the fridge) into the partially set gelatin. And leave to finish setting up.

***Someone already asked me–before I could even post this–how alcoholic this is, and I dunno… but there’s a 750 ml of 6.5 proof wine and the berries are soaked in 1/4 c of 15% creme de cassis and when drained there was a 1/4 c (combo of raspberry juice and cassis), if you want to set about figuring it out… But I say this’d probably be best for a “walk to” picnic rather than a “drive to” one, just to keep it on the safe side… nonetheless, if you consume enough of this to feel tipsy then perhaps you should rather be looking at your dessert consumption a little more.

*** Another question, this time regarding soaking… yes you can soak the berries longer, overnight if you’d like… the longer they soak the more of the cassis flavor they will pick up… I had a really delicate peach wine and didn’t want to overpower it, but if you have a nice strong fruity one or just want the berries more dominant then go for it!! It’ll hurt nothing and will be tasty, under different circumstances I would have myself…

Leftover Magic: Pork and Veggie Stew

Ok, so it’s not magic. It’s completely common place to plop leftovers in a stew… but an emailer has requested a leftover showcase. So while I use random leftovers all the time, when something is strategically made from leftovers I shall deem it such from now on… So dear e-friend hope this soothes your rerun fever… : )

I think this shows a little of everything...

Pork and Veggie Stew
leftover meat, peppers, onions, and rice from here **
leftover potatoes and pineapples from here
2 cans tomatoes
1/4 c white rum
1.5 c frozen lima beans
4-5 bay leaves
1 leftover bell pepper top
a dozen cloves (studded in pepper top)
1 T ea: allspice, ginger
1/2 head of garlic, roasted (leftover from the caribbean meal too really, in a preheated 400 oven the roasting took about as long as the limas)
juice of 3-4 limes (about 1/4 c juice)

Preheat the oven to 400. Chop the roast as you’d wish to spoon it and dump everything but the garlic and limes in the pot to boil with 1.5 qt water and a bit of salt (the limas need it). Drizzle the garlic w/olive oil (or whatever oil) and roast around 25-30 mins or until limas are tender. Remove the pepper/cloves and bay. Squeeze in garlic and lime juice (roll limes under your palm a bit and nuke for 30 sec to amplify the flow of juice) and serve.

** Now, technically I left the ginger slices in mostly because I forgot I packed them away, but I’d either chop them finer or fish them out.

Also, be careful how you stud the pepper piece as those piercing the flesh and no skin came out into the stew and you don’t want to hunt for tiny cloves amongst huge chunks. Alternatively, I suppose you could just cram them in some cheesecloth… Plus if you were less lazy you could zest the limes before juicing I’d recommend it as I think I’d be very good with that addition…

Steak Au Poivre

Yep, you guessed it another hubby training wife night… but while I’m sure Mr. Chefypants would wax on about what level of doneness is ideal for this dish or some such. I want all my proteins well-done (except maybe nuts, I guess) so I wouldn’t have cared if he’d tried… but this time he really didn’t try to pitch me a hard and fast rule. I wonder what that means… I know I’m not in the doghouse so it’s not just freezing me out, but maybe he just knew this one was futile. (Recipe details contributed by the man o’ the house)

Oh and you can so do this, he “taught” me in between continually popping upstairs to hermit on the PC and phone for the fantasy draft…and yet it still got done. Despite me drinking and not knowing what I was really doing…so I feel it successfully demystified the whole thing for me (and I haven’t decided if I’m sad about that or not yet) as it’s really not as involved as it seemed.

Steak Au Poivre
2 Well marbled steaks, no more than 1 inch thick. (Strips are best)
2 Tbl peppercorns (you can mix colors) **
2 Tbl olive oil
3 Tbl Butter
3 Tbl red wine (I used a South African Cab that my wifey adores, but you can also use cognac for a more traditional flavor)
Salt to taste

Take the peppercorns and roughly crush then, either with a mortar and pestle or as I did, put them in a plastic bag and pound them with a meat mallet, (fun little stress reducer). Heat 1 Tbl of the olive oil in a saute pan. Salt both sides to taste. Place crushed peppercorns in a dish and coat the steaks on both sides pressing the peppercorns into the meat. Once oil is hot, add the steaks and cook on both sides approximately 4 minutes each for medium rare, longer for more well done (we used a thermometer for the well done one until it reached temp). Once done to your liking, remove steaks from pan and tent to keep warm. Add the wine to the pan and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan and add the remaining oil and butter. Cook, stirring often until it reduces to a nice sauce. When sauce is done place steaks on a plate and drizzle sauce over top and serve.

** So yes I took pictures but they were sad, so I’m not posting them. And my only complaint was I think you should go ahead crush up more peppercorns, I felt a little chitnzy trying to spread them out… but once you are in the middle of things you and have a hot pan of oil you really don’t want to go back to the crushing so you chintz, it’s just what you do.

Roasted parsnips, mushrooms, and green beans

Sometimes simple and humble brings great joy… just check out the baby!! He never dreamed of eating so much…

The roasted veggies before and after baking... a minor transformation, yes. But there is beautiful and joyous flavor hidden in this subtlety...

Roasted parsnips, mushrooms, and green beans
5 c trimmed green beans
3 c matchsticked parsnip
1 c sliced mushrooms
olive oil (I used an extra virgin–a cooking one not a drizzling one–and while most people wouldn’t, I think it added a lot of flavor)
s/p, garlic pwd, onion pwd to taste
1 T thyme
1/2 T rosemary
1.5 T butter, cut in tiny pieces

rinse the beans and snap off their ends… peel the parsnip and matchstick to a similar thickness and length as the beans… toss veggies with copious amt olive oil and the seasonings, spread out on oiled jellyroll pan, dot with butter and roast at 425 (I don’t have a time on this, as we didn’t use a recipe and I actually just roasted them until I thought about them again and it happened to work out for the better this time…)

The pitty pat loved the crap out of these, he devoured them and this quantity of veggies only ended up feeding him, Hubs, and me. LOL Guess we’ll, have to start buying parsnips more… I really only used them for soups and stews or maybe pot pie and such… but the baby was ripping into them as if we’ve been holding out on him. All the coos laughs and expressions made em wish I was better with the camera.

The pitty pat LOVED the roasted veggies--especially the parsnips--he was a stinking happy baby. And most probably ate more food than ever before in a single sitting!! Before it was all said an done he was covered in thyme... and so elated.

Recipe by Request: French Onion Soup

So while this is one of the easiest things to make (no need for a recipe just caramelize some onions, add some beef broth and top with french bread and swiss and heat until cheese melts), it has nevertheless been requested so here goes.

Oopsie... I forgot to take a pic before eating, but there is soup, bread, and cheese all still there so all is set, no?

French Onion Soup
1.5 yellow onions, thinly sliced
olive oil
1 T butter
couple pinches of salt (go really easy on the salt–your gonna have a marked saltiness from reducing the liquids soon)
pinch of thyme
6 c beef broth/stock
3 T worsterchire sauce
lightly toasted slices of french bread (just toasted on the one side that is to lay in the soup is adequate really)
swiss cheese

And thank goodness for second helpings... please for give the untoasted bread, this is approximately the look. Truth is I am not sure the pic helps much... or does it any favors...

Caramelize the onions slowly over med-low heat with a little salt and thyme in a covered pot. When they look satiny and browned add the liquids and simmer until reduced by half. Put into ovensafe bowls and top with slices of french bread toast and slices of a swiss cheese and bake in a moderate oven until cheese is melted. (Alternately you can just make cheese toasts on a baking sheet and float them on your soup if you don’t have any oven safe bowls)

French Tomato Pie

This was an auditioned dish for the french food GTG… it didn’t pass because I wasn’t thrilled with the texture… but it’s still worth a try if the pureed tomatoes and cream pie idea isn’t off-putting to you.

I used a store bought roll out crust, and dropped the sugar (as the tomatoes were good and they mentioned not when or why to add them anyway) and drained of most of the bacon grease reserving a bit to cook the onions in… but more or less stuck with the recipe and since it’d be very hard to get ahold of anyway I’m including the original version…enjoy!

Well, when all is said and done you have a pie...

Tarte a la Tomate (by Mr & Mrs. Duwat from the St Anne Catholic Church Tribute to 9/11/01 cookbook, p 56)
1 c plus 1 T flour
1/3 c water
1/4 c oil
pinch of salt
1/2 lb bacon
pepper to taste
1 T herbes de provence** or italian seasoning
2 onions
.9 lb can crushed tomatoes
14 oz tomato purèe
4 eggs
8 oz sour cream or créme fraiche
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg

...my one remorse is that this gorgeous red gets lost to the sour cream (and you will have more of a penne a la vodka pinkness throughout).

In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Add oil and knead. Add and incorporate water slowly until it forms a ball. Place the dough in refridgerator for 2 hours. During this time, chop the onions and brown in a little canola oil in a pot. Add the diced bacon and cook over meat heat for a few minutes. THen add the puree of tomatoes. Add the salt. pepper, ginger, nutmeg, and herbes de provence. Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes. While the tomato mixture is simmering, prepare pie shell. Roll out dough, then place in a greased and floured pie pan. Prick the dough with a fork and place a few dried beans on top before placing it in the oven. This will prevent it from rising and bubbling. Cook in a preheated oven (350) for 10 minutes. Add the sour cream and then the eggs, one at a time. Stir with a wooden spoon. Let the tomato mixture cook on medium heat, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove beans from pie shell and fill with tomato filling. Cook in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or until done. Serve warm.

** herbes de provence is essentially a blend of rosemary, marjoram, thyme and summer savory or basil in seats of dominance with a few other herbs and some lavendar thrown in so barring a great affinity for the lavender back note… you can likely make do with things in your pantry, mixing as you will, if you don’t have them on hand…

Chili Fried Bananas

see how they get those yummy caramelized bits? If you do not let them brown enough you will cheat yourself out of yummy... but if you overbrown it well, who wants burnt bananas? (and for the record these could have browned a bit more but I was starving and hubby got first dibs since he had to dash so my patience was shot...hence the beautimous picture in pan)

These are soooo good, we’ve even made them in past on the grill. I love them, Hubs loves them–plus the Pops was intending to be here and loves spicy food in general, as does Little Hawk so I figured they’d probably enjoy them (though with Dad and Hubs gone and with Hubs and I eating some at lunchtime when he was dropping off the car, I never quite got around to making them that night and hence they didn’t actually try them… but Little Hawk was very interested so I’ll probably make them for him soon-ish depending when I see him again.) or that they’d at least appreciate how we could–and yeah they’re too spicy for the kids (but we don’t have to share everything we like with the kids to be good parents, we already cut out a lot of mains not to have to make double dinners all the time, so sides are fair game people) but the oldest has said “they’re really good, Mama, even if they are a little too spicy for me.” So see try them, even the 5 yo likes them. Painlessly simple too, not really a recipe even…

Step one: make chili oil (yeah you could probably buy it, so if you have one you really like on hand don’t bother with making it, but really I like making a fresh batch for this each time). The easiest way is Giada’s, gently heat some red pepper flakes in your olive oil. I make a much smaller batch, and use a higher ratio of pepper to oil (because I’m not gonna fridge it so it won’t be stilling around perking itself up; 1/4 c to 1 tsp btw) so this could easily be made more child/mild palate friendly–maybe even with her amts–but we like it spicy and it’s not a big part of the meal so they don’t miss out that much. But there are tons of ways, many many that are good—however, for this I really like hers because it’s quick so you can make it fresh and still get this done quickly.

the pic may not be good enough to show what I wanted it too, but if you pop this in a nice preheated pan... as soon as the edges start to look somewhat translucent you can flip them...

Chili Fried Bananas
chili oil
banana(s)

Slice your bananas and deep fry, pan fry on each side, or coat well with the chili oil and put in a foil pouch on the grill (or probably even in a high temp oven). Get them a little golden/caramelized and it is a beautiful sweet spicy foil. While freshly out of the oil you can sprinkle them with a tiny bit of salt if needed, really all depends on the ripeness of the banana and degree of contrast if it really needs it or not–ie, to taste. And before you think I’m a crazywoman eating these straight out of the oil so I can season them in time, the trick is to make one or two before the rest to taste for seasoning (you know, kind like how you can test for meatball/meatloaf seasoning).

[Note to self and spouse: We totally need to make these more often!]

Note to the Pops: maybe you should make these for you and L as it may be a while before I will have another chance.

Pineapple sweet potatoes

Ok so normally when I make this, it’s sort of twice baked sweet potatoes… cut in half carefully scooped out leaving some meat to support as the skin is flimsy… roughly mashed with some withstanding chunks with a bit of s/p and maybe butter and even a splash of the pineapple juice if needed or desired… then the refilled shells topped with crushed pineapple and spinkled a small amt of brown sugar and sunflower seeds and cooked until brown sugar is bubbly… and that is one of the best things, mmmmm…. you should totally make them that way–very, very good

That particular night I had gianourmous potatoes so I cubed 2 of them and mixed with them with a can of pineapple tidbits and a can chunks and the juices (I get the kind in fruit juice) add a couple pinches of salt and sprinkle with some brown sugar)… Cover and bake until potatoes are fork tender… this was so-so and not close enough to the real thing. But definitely easy and edible… and sometimes that’s enough.

I don’t really have a recipe for either version… but I am reasonably certain that the twice baked version came from one of those paperback betty crocker’s or something of the like (or at least something quite similar that jump-started all this business) that you can get in the checkout line… but those are tiny thin little paperback magazines so I will check around the pantry for it and add their recipe if I can find it… so that you can have more of a springboard to start from… (but it’s become one of those things I just do, and I really don’t measure anything… so I’m useless beyond a vague description…)

With the twice baked ones, I often microbake the potatoes rather than oven bake just the cheat time as you can do this while it preheats… I nuke them on high (5 min for 1, 7 for 2, 10 for 3, 14 for 4) then wrap them in foil and tuck them inside oven mitts and let stand 5-10 min  (or until I remember, which is why I use the oven mitts to help keep them warm as I forget to check on them… a normal person need not tuck them in a mitt).  Then just split them in half and go about the rest as if you’d baked them normally…

“Caribbean” Crockpot Roast

Ok, so I found this recipe claimed it was a Caribbean Pork Roast…I know nothing about carribean food so I dunno if it actually is or if it is even very Caribbean inspired but that’s ok (my beloved Joy of cooking had pretty much just soups so what can you do if you don’t want soup?). I was trying to make something for Joelen’s Caribbean Challenge and really don’t know caribbean food. I’m sure there’s a decent chance that after I read the round-up posted I will learn I knew more than I thought about Caribbean food without realizing it but that’s ok. Oh and for the record, the challenge is long over am I didn’t make the deadline, but I was planning to make this:

And this recipe wasn’t originally in the crockpot, it’s just hot out. And as always when I put a pork roast in the slow cooker I do it in two steps to drain off the superfluous grease (and perhaps that could also be why I always avoid the mystical ‘cat pee smell’ a certain someone finds). But it required little tweaking to do so, however, I think next time I will bypass both oven and crock and do it on the stovetop with pork steaks or chops because of the citrus…

“Carribean” Crockpot Roast
5 lb pork roast
2 c orange juice
1/2 c ea: sweet dark rum, key lime juice (you can juice your own, I just think key limes are such a pain)
1 T ea: cumin, hot pepper sauce [after trying it I would cut the cumin back or out as it was overpowering and a bit too peacockish for a dish with so many flavors…]
1/2 T ea: allspice, blk pepper, salt
1 yellow onion
1/2 head of garlic, cloves halved and peeled
1 green bell pepper
1.5-2 in hunk ginger, cut into sixths
[in theory, I believe this called for finishing off with: 1/4 c dry white rum and 1/2 c lime juice–and I even had 6 limes ready to juice to be sure I could do it… but I decided last minute to nix it, Little Hawk was here and doesn’t like rum and I figured the kids didn’t need it either… but feel free to add it as I think it would work well especially the additional lime…]

Season the meat with s/p and sear the roast on all sides. Put in crockpot on HIGH 2-3 hrs, remove and drain off fat and juices, and refrigerate. Put sliced onions in bottom of crock, followed by roast, pour over oj, key lime juice and seasonings along with garlic and ginger reduce to LOW. When starting rice add chopped bell pepper… [I used the chilled pork juices, minus the fat layer, to cook the rice but you could just use water and a bit of salt]

2-3 hrs into things: the pork has reached temp and getting ready to drain the runoff so the fat can be removed...

Served over the rice... dishing up it is really not visually striking so maybe using more colorful peppers could be... *shrugs*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of this dinner was sort of attempting to be in keeping with the theme so feel free to check out the Pineapple Sweet Potatoes and Chili Fried Bananas (sorry but since we’d already eaten the broccoli slaw anyway I didn’t bother with the Mojo).

Lemon Cake and Cherry ‘Bread’ Pudding

Lemon Cake and Cherry ‘Bread’ Pudding
1 lemon cake, cubed (mine the leftover flop)
2-2.5 c pitted cherries **
2 c heavy cream
6 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla (guessing, I did two capfuls and it’s a new brand so I don’t know what size lid it was)
1/2-3/4 c sugar (I used the measuring cup as a scoop rather than a measuring device)

Toast (300-325 oven) or dry out (200 oven) your cake–from the brownness you are aware I toasted (although I did use the 200 to thaw the frozen cake before cubing it). Toss your little cake croutons with the cherries and place in a greased dish, mix the remaining ing and pour over and let sit in fridge to soak in (despite sitting 6 hrs mine didn’t soak up much of anything and was a soupy mess, but I’m guessing it was the demon cake because you can usually accomplish this in 2-3 hrs… In hindsight once I realized the evil lemon cake was impeneratable I could have drained off the wet mix and added more eggs to make the custard set nicer, but I was rushing to much to think properly as I was so focused on leaving for Chicago–plus who’d have thunk that many eggs wouldn’t thicken 2 c of liquid??). Bake at 375 until set, should be about 40-50 min usually (but again, evil cake).

** I started out stoning them with a grapefruit knife and decided to just halve them instead, which I deemed pure laziness… but it appears even that could have earned me diligence points with my host and hostess. Nonetheless, I am thinking next I’ll buy some bobby pins to try that tip I was given… but if that fails, I may just have to demand a cherry pitter find its way into my utensil drawer. I am making use of too many cherries these days… used to be I’d just pit them with my teeth (aka. eat all the cherries and never cook with them), which works great you just grab the bag of cherries and a spit cup for the seeds and go to town until full bellied. But clearly it leaves no room for cooking or sharing with others, LOL.

[Note to self and spouse: Go ahead and throw out any similarly flopped cakes before they can bring future dishes down. Devil spawn can not be redeemed!!! And not understanding what went wrong in the first place might just be a benchmark for not knowing what in tarnation to do to rescue it from disaster]

And while I have no photos of the end result I do have some of the evil lemon cake I can throw up here in tribute to it’s pervasiveness… maybe it will help excise the bad luck!

trying to capture the odd texture for you... this is among the reasons why I am baking impaired...

the lemon cake cubed and then toasted

Sure, I know some where out there is a baker that knows what I did wrong both with the cake and the subsequent pudding but oh well… I am an incompetant baker, in fact I think there may even be an evil fairy living in my stove that likes to play random tricks on my baked goods. Because there’s often no rhyme or reason to the mishaps…

Blender Puffy Mac and Cheese

So confession time, this was meant to intro my cooking phobic friend into the world of easy but impressive dishes but it was a big time flop. (Note to self: Do NOT try to beat egg whites in the blender–even if you think that’s what a recipe is suggesting–it is painfully frustrating… I say “think” because upon closer more careful examination I realized blenderness aside they were saying blend, blend, blend, beat and thus with more attentiveness it is clear that they are not suggesting you attempt to whip these whites into shape via blender blade and it was some what a**inine of me to assume so as logic would alert you to the lack of air potential but alas no I was have a completely blonde night–as despite physically outgrowing the more evident symptoms I am still very much afflicted.) And while I got it from the cookbook in theory, I cut out the veg because of the kids and the onion for my friend, changed amts on things to fit with my supplies and taste preferences and threw up a little in the back of my throat at the idea of pureeing the pasta (as they so wonderfully suggested) so umm, yeah I didn’t dare do that… and when as was said and done this not really the recipe any more either. But as you know that’s in keeping with how I operate… and I won’t take it personally if you make it faithfully to the original (I mean I might have blended the pasta to if I was making it for the pitty pat, but as is I was cooking the pasta past my desired for the goonies anyway so that was a concession I didn’t have in me)

Blender Puffy Mac and Cheese (inspired from “Macaroni Puff Soufflé” p 39 of Better Homes and Gardens Blender Cook Book 1971)
12 oz elbows
2.5 c milk
5 eggs, seperated
2.5 c shredded cheddar
2 wedges laughing cow spreadable swiss (you can sub butter, that’s what a normal person would use)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

So I boiled the pasta in very salty water. Threw the whites in the blender with the cream of tartar (but will just use the electric beater next time) poured out in a bowl and nearly cried, and began feebly trying to save them and never got them where they needed to be (hence the non puffiness, but this is still a salvagable recipe and I’ll come make it with you the proper way if you’d like). Added the milk, yolks and cheeses to the blender and blitzed smooth. Fold everything together and put in dish to bake in and ungreased dish preheated 350 oven until set, I think it was around 45 min.

As a special note, you’d actually want to put this in an dish with tall sides but as I was planning to use that dish in chicago and didn’t have any faith this would rise much I went with the big glass casserole, aka my brownie pan (did you catch that diane? but I swear there was no such reason why he liked the mac… I’m a good girl unlike the other three adults at the table *smirks* at least in that respect), instead so I wouldn’t need to hand wash it before we left town (but of course a certain sweet fairy cleaned all the dinner dishes before my sojourn home)…

[NB. It needed a little something IMO, so I think I’d add some roasted yellow or orange bell pepper next time to discreetly replace the pimentos as that’d puree into something that could easily hide under the guise of the cheese and would lend a little more roundness I think.]